


The Wanderer Returns

by 1000_Spiders_in_a_Trenchcoat



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Now with added plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-04-27 05:17:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14418504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000_Spiders_in_a_Trenchcoat/pseuds/1000_Spiders_in_a_Trenchcoat
Summary: Alex, The Lone Wanderer of the Capitol, woke up 10 years in the future in an Enclave lab. Experimented on, lost, and confused he's made it his new mission to hunt down and destroy any remnants he can find. But first he's going to ignore all of that and focus on ruining a certain uppity BOS brats day instead.





	1. A Bad Day

Maxson was having a bad day. Some stupid fucking scribe had deleted half of this month’s supply records, a fight had broken out that nearly ended with two squires being pushed off the Prydwen, he was still dealing with the fallout from the “Danse incident”, and to top it all off everyone had decided that he needed to personally micro-manage every single thing that happened in the brotherhood even though he was still busy trying to negotiate with Nate so that they didn’t get blasted out of the sky by the world’s second most annoying historical costume party. All Maxson wanted to do was barricade the door to his quarters and finish his drink in peace.

Was it a good idea for him to swipe a bottle of whisky and have most of it himself? No.  

But was it a good way for him to destress? Also no. In hindsight this was a terrible idea, he’d always been a sad drunk. Fortunately, the sound of some commotion and someone banging on his door managed to catch his attention before his night devolved into drunkenly singing along to emotional songs on the radio. Clearing his throat and putting on his best sober stance Maxson opened the door and found himself face to face with a ghost.

Standing in front of him was a tall, lithe man with short blond hair. He was wearing a faded blue vault suit with leather and metal reinforcements. If Maxson were more sober his attention would’ve been drawn to the fat man strapped onto his back but instead the young elder was staring into the mans icy blue eyes with a look of growing horror as he realised who this was.

 

“Alex?! You’re alive?!” Maxson was almost at a loss for words. The shock of seeing someone who’d been thought dead for almost a decade snapped him out of his drunken moping.   
  
“Arthur?! You’re tall?!” Alex replied with equal incredulity, as though someone growing between the ages of 11 and 20 was just as surprising as someone disappearing without a trace for 9 years before reappearing on an airship several hundred miles away. “What’s going on? Why are you big?”   
  
“I… grew?” Maxson felt like his head was spinning as he tried to process this. The institute has been destroyed, Nate had been pretty thorough with that one, but could they have made a synth of Alex? He certainly didn’t look any older than the last time he saw him

Instinctively Maxsons hand reached for the laser pistol he kept holstered at his side… usually kept holstered by his side. Why wasn’t his laser by his side? Oh, right, he’d put it away when he started drinking. The Prydwen had a strict “No drunk shooting rule” after a tipsy initiate had shot him. It was ok, he’d only been shot a little. Just a flesh wound. 

Maxson realised he’d completely lost his train of thought and had been zoned out for a really long time. Alex had been talking obliviously for all of it.

“…thawed out I guess but then there were enclave scientists like everywhere and they’d taken my guns! I had like nothing on me. It’s ok though they’re still idiots so I just kept blowing things up and would you believe I ran into an old friend. Kind of friend. He tried to kill me a while ago and he doesn’t speak English but I think we’re cool and …”

“ELDER MAXSON, THERE’S AN INTRUDER ON BOARD” A flustered looking Kells was sprinting down the corridor, followed by a rugged looking ghoul and a smaller, strawberry blond man in yet another vault suit.

“Thank you Lancer-Captain Kells. I hadn’t noticed.” Maxson gestured towards Alex, who grinned and waved at the duo with Kells. The duo shot back a withering glare. Suddenly Maxson liked them, despite the unfortunate condition of the ghoul.

“Ah, right. These two claim to be associates of the man next to you. They asked permission to board to, quote “retrieve him before something blew up””

Maxson noted the fact that Kell’s had specified  _ these two _ , meaning that Alex had somehow made it aboard a floating brotherhood of steel base filled with armed paladins without even getting an “ok”. 

“Alex, how did you get onboard.”

“Oh, that was easy. I jumped.” 

“… You jumped?” Maxson asked sceptically.

“Yes”

“Alex, we’re currently cruising at an altitude of 1800ft. How the hell did you jump up here?!” Maxson was trying to figure out if he was too drunk or too sober to deal with this right now. Historically, dealing with Alex was always… interesting at the best of times.

“The key is to get a good run up, jump really high, and then use this bad boy to give you a boost” Maxsons jaw dropped as Alex gestured to the fat man on his back. “Didn’t Sarah ever teach you that trick? She was so surprised when I told her how I did this!”

The ghoul cut in at this point. “With all due respect, no-one in their right mind would use that trick.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Ugh, Charon you’re no fun.” 

The other man in the vault suit raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. 

“Don’t you start.” Alex snapped at the man. The man muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

Maxson and Kells were stood around awkwardly trying to assess the situation. Kells was clearly unhappy at the fact that someone had found a way to sneak onto the airship using nukes and then casually walk up to the elder and start talking to him as though he’d just run into an old friend at the bar and not the single most important man in the brotherhood. Maxson was still reeling from the revelation that his childhood idol was alive, either that or the whiskey was really kicking in. He leaned against the door frame in a totally casual, definitely not trying to hide how drunk he was manner. Sensing the mildly uncomfortable mood Alex decided to make things worse be scooping the elder into a hug. Kells and the group of brotherhood of steel members that just so happened to be walking by and were totally not trying to eavesdrop gasped at the boldness of the stranger. Maxson had taken down a deathclaw before but based on his posture he’d rather be hugging one than dealing with this right now.

“So anyway I heard about Sarah and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I came as soon as I could, I know its like 7 years too late but I wanted to let you know I’m still here for you little guy… not so little guy… actually wait I think I’m still taller than you” Alex had been so close to a touching moment then. Maxson deeply wished that Alex would let him go, if only to preserve some sense of dignity. Clearing his throat, Maxson tried to untangle himself from Alex’s embrace before realising that the man had lifted him off the ground. Landing in a heap on the floor, he decided he was too drunk to stand with any dignity and that the best course of action would be trying to figure out what Alex wanted and send him on his way, far away from anyone here, before the last of the stoic, brooding reputation he’d spent the past few years trying to build up was ruined beyond salvation.   
  
“So Alex, why are you here?” Maxson asked, still on the floor.

“Oh yeah. Well first I wanted to check in on my favourite lil’ guy, then I thought I should probably check back because I kinda went AWOL on a mission and I wasn’t sure if I was fired or not. Speaking of do you know where the new elder is?”

There was an uncomfortable silence in the Prydwen as those words sunk in. The group of totally-not-evesdroppers were definitly just coughing and most assuredly not laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation (after all, it wasn’t every day your boss was on-the-floor-drunk and being disrespected by a stranger too dumb to know who he was). Kells was working out whether Maxson would snap and, if so, should he leave before he witnessed a murder. Maxson was too blitzed to snap. If the ghoul Charon was staring daggers at Alex, the other companion must’ve been staring full-fledged swords. Alex’s grin faltered as even he managed to notice the change in atmosphere.

After far too long with no-one making any moves, Maxson decided that there was no salvaging the situation and he would just have to settle for damage control when the world was less spinny. Springing to his feet with all of the grace and dexterity of a baby giraffe with an inner-ear infection, he did his best to straighten up and put on, what he hoped was, an official sounding voice.

“That would be me”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No way in hell is Maxson some stoic leader at 20. The amount of times I've seen him swiping whiskey, he's probably not as put together as he acts.


	2. Still Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our hero does nothing to help the situation

Maxson wasn’t happy. He’d managed to drag Alex and his companions into his room before his reputation made a complete nose-dive, but now the overly talkative traveller had made himself at home. Alex was currently sitting casually on Maxson’s desk, pouring a tumbler of whiskey and excitedly chattering away in a tone that could only be described as “disbelieving insubordination”.

“I mean, you’re the fucking Elder of the East Coast Brotherhood?! Last time I saw you, you accidentally shot Sarah and needed an adult to walk you outside after dark because you thought you saw a Behemoth once. Now you expect me to believe that the elders looked at you and went “yup, there’s a fucking leader right there””.

Maxson was at a loss for words. Torn between defending himself (there really was a behemoth outside the Citadel and he’d only shot Sarah a little) and reprimanding Alex, he apparently settled on the third option of gesturing helplessly at the mans companions in the hopes that they’d shut him up the way the supermutent used to. The human companion apparently picked up on this and calmly passed Charon his drink before whacking Alex upside the head and making a “shushing” gesture. Alex returned the favour with a gesture of his own.

“Thank you for that, uhhh…” Maxson realised he’d never caught the mans name.

“Gary” The man said quietly as he attempted to get his drink back from Charon, only to watch the ghoul down it and stick his tongue out.

“I’m doing you a favour lightweight. I’m got my hands full when you and Alex are sober, like hell am I going to let you two drink together again. Speaking of, Alex? Be nice and give Elder Maxson his whiskey back”.  
Alex rolled his eyes but complied.

“At least someone’s giving me respect here. You know I’m your superior now, right?” Maxson tried the authoritative voice again in the hopes that Alex would get the message that his patience was wearing thin.

“Sorry Sir, it’s just hard taking this all seriously. To me it was just a couple of months ago you were a kid and Lyons was in charge and all of a sudden you’re this distinguished leader with a goddamned airship and a badass scar”. Alex stared wistfully into his glass before finishing it off. “Tell you what, it’s been a long day for all of us. Why don’t we take off and let you rest? I can go and try to wrap my head around all of this and you can do a formal induction for me in a few days. If I’m not fired for insubordination and going AWOL that is”.

That caught Maxson off guard. Alex had always been a larger than life. He’d come bursting in from nowhere and managed to work his way into the brotherhood, an act almost unheard of at the time. He’d gone out of his way to find and help every person he could no-matter how big or small the problem, it was as though one of the heroes from one of the old comics had come to life. Maxson had idolised him and to see him like this, looking lost and out of his depth, was heartbreaking. After everything Alex had done for the brotherhood, he at least deserved a second chance. Besides, it was nice to have at least one person treat him like “Arthur” instead of “Elder Maxson”, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

“That would be fine. Knight Cole I’m officially putting you on temporary leave until you’re ready to rejoin the Brotherhood”.

“Thank you, Sir. I look forward to working under your command. Come on guys, we’re leaving”. Alex gave a salute before grabbing Gary by the arm and took off. Charon gave a small wave before running to catch up to them.

“Well that went better than expected”. Maxson was genuinely surprised at how quickly Alex had changed his attitude. By all accounts the man had a history of pushing Elder Lyons to his breaking point and mouthing off to his superiors. Whatever had happened to him had apparently changed him for the better. Feeling content, Maxson wrote down notes from the impromptu meeting and settled down for the night.

Off of the Prydwen and away from the airport, Alex and company were starting the walk down to Goodneighbor.

“Awfully nice of you to bow down to kid back there” Charon said suspiciously. “Awfully unlike you too. Did you really have a change of heart?”

“Eh, the kid looks pretty stressed out and smelled like a distillery. It wasn’t worth riling him up just yet. Besides…” Alex took a puff of a cigarette before turning to Charon with a manic smile,  
“…the little shit put glue in my shoes two weeks before I left and if he thinks I’ve forgotten that, then he’s got another thing coming”


	3. Hotel Room Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our nominal hero plans his next move.

Goodneighbour was an ok place to stay. Sure it wasn’t much to look at, and the hotel Alex was staying at was a bit off a rip-off, and a thug had come down with a mysterious case of “stab-wounds-to-the-everything-itus” after tying to mug Gary, but the weapons shop had mini-nukes in stock and the mayor seemed pretty cool. He’d even traded a couple of boxes of mentats for some ultra-jet Alex had! Right now Alex was lying on a twin bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to plan his next move while simultaneously trying to ignore the complaining Gary he’d unceremoniously flopped down on.

“ _Gaaaryyyyyy_ ” Gary whined, too tired to actually try and push Alex off.

“Shh, thinking” Alex replied, not actually knowing what the hell Gary had said but (correctly) assuming it wasn’t very polite.

“Ugh, Gary” He squirmed as he tried to shift so that most of Alex’s weight wasn’t on his stomach, only succeeding in transferring most of it to his chest. Not a success by any stretch of the imagination. “ _ **MOVE**_ ” Giving up, Gary punched Alex’s shoulder to punctuate the message.

“ **OW**. Dude you are the worst mattress. I know you know “please”, try that word before the punching next time” Alex grumbled, but moved so that he was sprawled over Gary’s comparatively less crushable legs.

“Uh, Gary?” Gary motioned towards the double bed that Charon had apparently claimed for all for himself.

“You and I both know that's not going to happen. I've saved your sorry asses enough to get my own bed. This one’s a “you” problem”. Charon responded, not even looking up from his book.

Gary looked confused at that.

“He won’t move” Alex clarified “Need I remind you who has your contract right now?”

“Need I remind you who stopped your dumb ass from jumping into a river in the middle of winter on the way here?”

“It was a shortcut” Alex said petulantly.

“Yes, to the graveyard” Charon casually thumbed to the next page in the book. He wasn’t really reading it anymore but he was trying not to laugh and to keep a nonchalant appearance as he watched Alex try to fit his 6’4 frame on the tiny bed that was also occupied by a uncooperative, grumpy Gary.

“Nooooooooooooo” Gary whinged as Alex dragged him onto the floor and promptly reflopped into the now Gary-less bed.

“Shh, thinking again” Alex made the shushing gesture. Gary responded with a different gesture before slinking off to the chair.

“If he kills me in my sleep I’m blaming you” Alex turned to face Charon

“Yes, but then he gets a bed and I don’t have a contract any more. It’s a pretty win-win situation from where I stand”

“You used to do as you were told”

“As I’ve said before, the contract entitles you to my services in combat. It does not entitle you to uncontested servitude, nor does it entitle you to my amazingly comfortable double bed.” Charon said with a smirk.

“Now back to the important bit, are you really going to go back to the Brotherhood? Because I’m almost certain they won’t let me join with you and if you leave me here I might just let Gary kill you”.  
Gary perked up at the mention of his name and “kill you” in the same sentence.

“No, don’t kill me” Alex said dryly.

“Aww” Gary said with the appropriate amount of fake dissapointment before attempting to go back to sleep.

“Back to the last bit. I just talked my way into getting unlimited paid time off, like fuck am I going back right now. I just wanted to let them know I was alive, check in on Arthur and see what was going on. I’ll go and do some odd jobs to keep ‘em happy. Might even be able to get some power armour again if I play my cards right”  
Charon grimaced at the memory of Alex in power armour. Generally, anything that made Alex invincible was considered a bad thing for everything involved, although it did slow him down a bit.

“What are you thinking of now then?” Charon realised that he had no idea what Alex actually wanted to do. With project purity dealt with and the enclave sent away licking their wounds for a second time, and Alex showing no interest in returning to the brotherhood, he wasn’t really sure what they were doing over here.

“Tomorrow we’re gonna have a lie in and relax. Then we’re gonna head down to the bar and…”

“ _No_ ” Charon interrupted “ _No drinking_. Remember the centaur incident?”

“I’m not drinking”

“Maybe” Charon cautiously

“Gary’s not drinking”

“Ok” Charon relented

“I’m looking for someone, remember that town with the kids?”

“Little lamplight? I seem to recall Fawkes duct taping you to a lamp post after you threatened to nuke the place”

“In my defence, the Mayor called me a mungo and told me to fuck off”

“Not a proportionate response, but continue” Charon rolled his eyes, he was generally opposed to nuking children.

“We made up eventually, didn’t we?” A fair point but he omitted the part where he made up with them by giving the Mayor a rock-it launcher and a jar of spiders labelled _“for princess”_ as ammo.

“Said Mayor apparently works as a merc, word is I can find him at the Third Rail”

“I think it’s a bit late to get your weapon back”

“Not the point. Rumour is he has a kid now, wanted to stop by and see how things are. I told him if he ever needed anything I was there for him and just because I disappeared off the face of the earth for 10 years is no excuse to break a promise”. Alex said Nobly.

“That’s sweet of you, what’s the catch?”

“Hmmm, think I can dress up as a ghost and convince him I’m a hallucination while he’s drunk?” Alex got up and turned off the lights.

“Hey, I was reading” Charon hadn’t actually been reading for the past 10 minutes but he was holding a book and that’s what counts.

“Your contract entitles me to your services in combat. I’m holding up my end by keeping you in tip-top fighting condition. Go to sleep”

“Oh fuck you” Charon said with no real malice.

“Love you too. G’night”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point Alex is only alive because Gary has no idea where the hell he is and Charon wants to see where he's going with this


	4. Meeting Up with MacCready

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our hero continues to make bad first impressions

MacCready was having a pretty good day. Nates agreement with the minutemen was going well, he’d helped take out a band of ferals, things in the commonwealth were steadily getting better, and the cherry on top was he’d got a letter from Duncan! Duncan was apparently getting better and was back on his feet causing trouble. MacCready was drinking with Nate and Hancock in the third rail to celebrate the turn of events.

“A toast, to good friends and good fortune” Hancock was handing out a round of drinks.

“To Nate, I don’t know where I’d be without you” MacCready carried on the mini-toast. Hancock cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.

“Also, to Hancock. The coolest ghoul in the commonwealth” MacCready tacked on jokingly, the trio clinked glasses and went back to drinking. Right now, sat in a dingy bar in a run down city, MacCready felt the happiest he’d been in a long time. His son was alive and healthy and would be coming back to him soon. He had friends, _real friends_ , friends who would do anything for him and he’d do the same for them. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, MacCready had purpose. He would stay in the Commonwealth with the minutemen, protect the settlements and care for Duncan. He was needed here. Wanted here. A small part of him missed the Capitol and all of his memories there, but he’d decided to move on and leave the past in the past.

Unfortunately, the past didn’t get the message.

 

“ ** _HEY MUNGO!_** ”

Before MacCready could fully process that sentence a fist collided with his face with enough force to send him reeling. Lying on the floor, he could see Nate and Hancock scrambling to grab their weapons and defend him from the “hostile intruder”. The man held out a hand to help him up and MacCready cautiously accepted it.

“Fuck me I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. What are you drinking? I’ll get you another”

Oh God he knew that voice. Squinting into the dim light he could make out a familiar face.

“ALEX!!” MacCready grinned and ran forward to give the man a hug. As a kid, adults had seemed like giants compared to little lamplights residents. Part of growing up had included realising he was just short back then but nope, Alex was just as stupidly tall now as he remembered.

Hancock and Nate re-holstered their weapons but looked uneasily at the man and his companions, who looked just as shocked at what had happened as they were.

“ _You…_ I… You’re alive! You’re here! You look great! Where’ve you been?!” MacCready was still hanging on to the towering idiot but saw a familiar face peeking over his shoulder “Charon! Long time no see!” he said with as much of a wave as he could manage with Alex crushing his arms.

“Ugh, Enclave bullshit again. I think they froze me or something ‘cause last I knew I was in Washington and you were like 4 ft tall”

“Ooh, you should talk to Nate about that. He knows more about being frozen than me. He’s the human standing behind me” MacCready motioned to the very confused, very muscular man that looked about ready to deck Alex.

“Have you met Hancock yet?” MacCready pointed to the bemused ghoul who had a hand on Nate.

“Oh yeah, we’ve met. Sorry if I worried you Mr. Mayor sir. But I’ve known R.J. for a long time now and he’s just got big enough for me to punch him without making me feel bad. Great to meet you Nate, I’ve hear a lot about you on my way here”. Alex shook Nates hand before turning back to MacCready and carrying on his catch up. Charon drifted into their conversation, leaving Nate, Hancock, and Gary awkwardly staring at each other.

 

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Hancock decided to break the mood by dragging the confused clone over to Nate and passed him a drink.

“So, heard you stabbed a guy when you got here, congrats!” Nate and Gary both almost choked on their drinks at this. Nate desperately tried to stop laughing so that he could breathe again while Gary needed to take a second to work out if he’d actually understood that properly.

“I am sorry? I do not understand” Gary said slowly. He’d thought his English was getting better but no way in hell did the mayor just congratulate him for stabbing a mugger. His body language didn’t look angry and judging by Nates reaction, no-one was hostile anymore

“Hell of an accent you’ve got there, don’t worry though. You’re not in trouble” Hancock replied through a sip of scotch as Nate gave a thumbs up to get the point across. Gary understood the “not in trouble” bit at least.

“Sorry. My English is bad” Gary said carefully. He hated long sentences, they always felt so awkward and clunky. Why did English need so many words?! Any decent language didn’t need more than one in his opinion. With any luck they’d ignore him and talk to Alex or Charon like most people did when he said that.

Nope, no such luck. Nate had slapped him on the back, pulled up a chair for him and was now speaking loudly and slowly as if that would make up for the fact that up until a couple of months ago he only knew like 10 English words tops. He appreciated the effort though.

 

“Vault dweller?” Nate motioned to his pip-boy and then to Garys. Gary nodded in response

“Please may I see?” Nate motioned to the pip boys again. Gary looked nervously at Alex. Last time someone had asked about pip-boys, Gary 23 had been dragged away and never come back. Then again, they were in a busy place, Alex and Charon were only a couple of feet away, and he’d said please. Please was one of those nice people words Alex had drilled into him.

“Yes?” Gary carefully held out his arm, Nate took it slowly as though Gary was a skittish animal.

“Wow, I’ve never seen this model!” Nate was speaking too quickly for Gary to understand anything but seemed pretty happy as he was pointing to things on his own pip-boy, then to Garys. Gary took the opportunity to study the other pip-boy. None of the other Gary’s had one that looked like that! Did Nate like computers too?

“You ok buddy?” Alex returned to ruffle Gary’s hair, much to his annoyance.

“Mm hmm” Gary motioned to Nates pip-boy then put his next to it to show the difference

“Ah. Sciency things. I see you’ve found another nerd”

“Wow, thanks” Nate said jokingly “Are you two from the same vault then?”

“Nah, picked him up at the Enclave labs. Met him before that though… I think… Was that you? I couldn’t tell you guys apart when you were trying to kill me. We’ve not had a conversation about that yet” Gary gave a blank look at that and shrugged, not actually understanding any of that.

“You’re friends with a guy who tried to kill you?” Nate looked worried

“Long story. I don’t know if you’ve ever met the Enclave but they are objectively _the worst_. I wasn’t going to leave him with them, he was in bad enough shape when I found him” Alex shuddered at the last bit. Gary was fiddling with the map on his pip-boy, politely ignoring the conversation since he couldn’t follow it.

“You say that Nate but which one of us would rescue a goddamn deathclaw if it looked sad enough” Hancock cut in

Nate honestly had no way to defend himself on that one, so settled for going back to showing off tech with his new friend. Energy weapons were apparently the new topic. Hancock and Alex shook their heads as the two men seemed to turn into excited children when deadly lasers were in front of them

 

“Well, you’re not getting him back” Hancock said dryly, referring to how Nate had practically adopted half the commonwealth.

“Dammit, he’s the only one that can work terminals here” Alex grinned, he liked Hancock. The outfit was a great first impression, the fact that he agreed grape mentats were the best flavour only improved that image.

“Can I get you a drink?” Hancock motioned to the bar, in case Alex had somehow missed it.

“Nah, Charon’s got me on soda. Apparently I cause _“too much trouble”_ and am banned from everything fun until further notice”

“Are you planning on causing any trouble I’d care about?” Hancock cared about Goodneighbour and wanted to figure out what this strange mans motives were here.

“Depends on how much you like Arthur Maxson” There was a gleam in Alex’s eyes that Hancock couldn’t decide if it made him terrified or excited.

“In that case, I’ll get you a double”


	5. Boys Night Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our hero finds a way to make every situation worse

“I don’t recall _that_ being part of the plan”

Charon was unhelpfully watching a sodden, slightly singed Alex try to stand up.

“Improvising. It’s what I do best!” Alex surveyed the destruction before spotting the missing part of his usual trio tangled in the upper branches of a particularly tall tree.

“You ok there Gary?” Alex was trying to figure out just how big the blast had been to throw him _that far_. Gary tried to move closer to the trunk so that he could climb down. “ _Tried_ ” being the key word there, as the branches that had caught him gave a groan that would give a feral a run for its money.

“Oh Gary” Gary said with a resigned sigh as the branch cracked and sent him plummeting back down, face first into the ever-unforgiving ground.

“… You ok there Gary?” Alex sounded genuinely worried at that one. Gary said nothing and made no effort to move from his prone position but gave a thumbs up. Alex and Charon sighed with relief.

 

“Well that’s one way to get down” Nate said as he appeared behind Charon, with a dazed Hancock slung over his shoulder.

“Can we do that again?” Hancock slurred, whether from the booze or the concussion no-one was really sure.

“Please don’t” MacCready said weakly, lying on his back in a muddy puddle that had helpfully cushioned the impact.

“Hey, I know this wasn’t exactly the ideal way to end negotiations but look at the bright side. No-one got hurt” Alex said optimistically. Everyone else silently looked at the raider corpses littering the scenery, before looking over to each other’s sorry states.

“No-one who counts” Alex said quickly. He rummaged in his backpack and began handing out stimpacks and rad-away.

“Anyway, I think that should’ve been everyone, they were all pretty keen to chase me after I offed Mr Shishkebab back there. All we gots to do now is find a dampening coil and then _I can see a real submarine_.” Alex was positively giddy at the last part.

 

Charon wasn’t sure how the night had gone so wrong so fast. Gary had been showing off the lazer rifle he’d jury-rigged when Nate had mentioned that he needed another mechanical pair of hands to help him fix a submarine. Alex, ever the adult, had got excited at the prospect of seeing an “actual fucking submarine instead of the disappointment from point lookout” and had decided that they were going to get the parts to fix it right now. Somehow that had turned into them getting into a war with a warehouse full of crazies with enough fire power to burn down half of the wasteland and the situation had escalated to the point where a fat man seemed like a reasonable solution. This was why Charon never let them drink.

 

______________________________________________________

 

Alex was beaming. Charon and Nate may have snatched the homing beacons out of his hands the second he got them, but he was given a cool hat and got to talk to a pre-war submarine captain, and that was almost as good. He was sat in his hotel room with everyone, Nate had brought over some extra blankets and enough junk food to give the population of Goodneighbour heart failure. They were currently chattering away like teenage girls at a sleepover, instead of the grown-ass men who’d nuked an ironworks a day earlier.

 

“So, are you going to hang around for a while?” MacCready asked in between mouthfuls of cookies.

“Probably. I think need some space away from the Enclave before I get back to destroying them and I’m pretty sure Maxson wants me to stay close to the Prydwen for now” Alex was steadily slipping into a fancy lad induced sugar coma

“Can you tell him to hurry up and get his shit together or he won’t have a Prydwen for long” Nate had made his distaste for the Brotherhood very clear, Alex couldn’t fault him for that. From what he’d heard, Maxson’s Brotherhood was very different to Lyons’ and not in a good way.

“Don’t worry, I’ll work on that” Alex had decided to make it his latest mission to try and get through to Maxson that his methods _weren’t working_ and try and bring back the sweet squire he’d known. He’d thought the brotherhood seemed a little “brainwashy” towards the kid when he’d first met him, but this was crazy. It was like there was nothing left of Arthur. All that was left was some near fanatical Elder.

“Can you work on that stupid beard of his too?” MacCready added “I swear he only grew it because no-one would take anything he said seriously if they knew he had a baby face under that”.

“Now there’s an idea” Alex seemed to be thinking a little too seriously about that.

“Alex no” Charon tried to nip this idea in the bud before Alex tried to sneak onto a flying airship with nukes… again.

“Alex yes” Hancock had immediately taken the position of enabler with Alex. Not that Alex really needed someone to goad him into making bad decisions.

“If you step out that door I’m not coming after your dumb ass. I’m off duty until morning” Charon didn’t want to deal with whatever Alex was planning right now, he’d got comfy. He was wearing slippers!

“That settles it, you guys wait here. I’ll be back by morning.” Alex started to grab his rucksack and walked towards the door.

Gary shot him a worried look, before pointing to the twin bed.

“If I die, yes you can have the bed” Alex rolled his eyes.

Gary immediately brightened up “Bye, don’t come back”

“I preferred you when you couldn’t talk” Alex muttered on his way out of the door.

“Love you too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Radbeetle, for giving me support while I was writing this, and JenLaFayette, who threatand to hunt me down and kill me if I didn't finish the chapter


	6. Maxson and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our hero is mostly absent and the plot makes a guest appearance.

Maxson was having a really fucking bad day.

 

He’d woken up to half of his goddamned beard missing and had to shave the rest of it off, someone had somehow balanced a bucket of water above his door, soaking him and giving him one hell of a bruise where the bucket collided with his face, several of his men had mistaken him for a squire and tried to order him around, and to top it all off some asshole had put glue in his shoes so now he was spending the morning trying to find goddamned solvent to get them off instead of working on the paperwork that desperately needed doing.

 

“ ** _FUCKING FUCKER_** ” Maxson snapped as what he thought was a bottle of acetone turned out to be someone’s hidden vodka stash. “ ** _THAT’S IT. ALL ACTIVITES ARE FUCKING SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHUR NOTICE. BASEWIDE MEETING IN 5 MINUTES_** ” Maxson shouted vaguely in Kells direction before storming off to try and calm down before getting to the root of this. Kells at least had the decency to wait until he was out of earshot before collapsing into a fit of laughter.

 

 

Five minutes had passed since then and Maxson had calmed down enough to talk at a normal volume. He stood surveying the crew, Ignoring the snickering and mumbling coming from the crowd when they saw his face.

 

“As I’m sure you can all see, I’ve not been having the best day. Would whoever is responsible for this please just come forward now so that we can got on with our jobs?”

 

After a few moments of quiet mumbling it became apparent that no-one was going to come forward.

 

“I have enough work to do. Please don’t make me investigate this. If you admit to this now you won’t be in trouble”.

 

That was a lie. One paladin raised a hand nervously

 

“Elder Maxson, everyone was accounted for last night. This morning was the first anyone heard about all of this.”

 

“Do you honestly expect me to believe that this happened by itself?!” He was starting to get angry again. “Lets go through the steps here, shall we? First, someone would have to sneak into my room and pick the lock. Then they’ll have needed to pour contact adhesive into my boots and shave part of my beard off _without waking me up_ before finally setting up a bucket trap and going on their merry way. ** _AND YOU’RE TRYING TO TELL ME THAT NO-ONE ON THE ENTIRE SHIP SAW THAT?!_** ”

 

“Um, kind of?” The paladin replied meekly. A general murmur of agreement followed.

 

“Alright then. I’ll play along. Suppose no-one on the ship did this. Who in their right mind would bother to sneak onto the Prydwen for the sole purpose of shaving my beard and pouring glue into my… _oh son of a bitch_ ” Realisation hit Maxson like a brick. It had been almost 10 years since he did that to Alex, but to Alex that was only a few of months ago and Alex certainly wasn’t in his right mind. An eerie calmness washed over Maxson.

“I’ll be right back”

 

With that Maxson walked out of the room and wordlessly began packing supplies and ammo. A gaggle of concerned paladins followed him, asking him a) what he was doing and b) where he was going to no avail. The worry only grew when he changed out of his regulation apparel and into non-descript metal armour.

 

“Back to your stations” Maxson firmly addressed his concerned crew and exited the Prydwen.

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Maxson was almost grateful for the lack of beard as he walked to Goodneighbour. So far no-one had recognised him, the brotherhood had enough enemies in the commonwealth and he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself if he was alone. Travelling without back-up might not have been the safest move but he really didn’t want to risk any of the brotherhood seeing a certain former paladin he knew was in the town right now. (He only kept track of Danse for the sake brotherhoods safety. _Honest._ ) Besides, he didn’t get out much and he was using the rare opportunity to travel without a convoy to see the wasteland as it really was. The Brotherhood was right, the wasteland was a hellhole. Where the hell did Nate manage to find friendly synths?! So far, every one Maxson came across decided to attack on sight. Ignoring the synths, there was still an ungodly number of feral ghouls. How did people live here?! No wonder Nate had joined the historical humanitarians, the people needed all the help they could get.

 

In the distance he could see the towns silhouette. With a resigned sigh he started mentally prepping himself to actually confront Alex. He was beginning to understand why Elder Lyons was suddenly busy every time Alex reported in. Alex wasn’t _bad_ , just… chaotic. According to the reports he’d appeared out of the vault as a well-meaning young doctor who’s lack of brains, combined with his poor impulse control, managed to land him in trouble. Maxson could attest to the lack of brains, when they first met they’d become fast friends due to their shared interests and the fact that Alex didn’t talk down to him. Which in hindsight was because Alex was about as smart as a 10-year-old at the time. Then one day it was as if someone flipped a switch. He suddenly seemed to understand everything that was happening around him, as though he’d managed to find a wizard to give him brains. He became more perceptive, charismatic, agile, and most importantly _intelligent._ The only thing more dangerous than an idiot was an idiot smart enough to plot revenge. And the smouldering, irradiated remains of Alex’s enemies could attest to that. A calm approach would probably be best.

 

With growing dread, he walked into Goodneighbour and made his way to the Hotel Rexford.

 

A cold looking woman glanced up at Maxson as he walked through the door.

 

“We don’t have any rooms right now.” She said sharply.

 

“Actually, I’m looking for someone”

 

“Fred isn’t here.” she added cooley.

 

“Someone called Alex? Tall, blond, wearing a vault suit” Maxson hoped the description would help but the woman’s face remained unimpressed. Maxson had fought deathclaws, synths, raiders, and ferals on his way here. Somehow this woman was almost as terrifying as them all put together. He shifted uncomfortably under her judgmental gaze, he would have to offer a job as a drill instructor later.

 

“It’s against policy to divulge client information. You can go now” She effectively shut down any further communication attempts by turning around and returning to work.

 

“Hey, you lookin’ for Alex?” a voice from behind Maxson spoke up “He was walkin’ to the third rail with his crew and Hancock a few hours ago. Check there” An imposing looking man wearing an old suit walked up to the desk.

 

" _STAN! YOU CAN’T JUST TELL PEOPLE WHERE OUR CUSTOMERS ARE! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET REPEAT BUSINESS IF THEY’RE DEAD?!”_ Maxson was more surprised by the sudden emotion than the shouting.

 

“Calm down Clair. Kid looks like 16 tops, just let him go. Better than hangin’ round here with the bottom feeders” Stan gently put a hand on Maxson’s shoulder and started walking him towards the door. Did Maxson really look that young without the beard?

 

 

Apparently, yes. Yes, he did look that young without the beard. Right now, Maxson was stood at the entrance to the third rail trying to convince the bouncer to let him in. He might as well have been arguing with a brick wall for all the progress he was making.

 

“I’m sorry sonny, rules are rules. No minors in the bar” The bouncer was using the same tone Maxson used with the squires who wanted to use weapons when they were too young.

 

“I completely understand that but _I’m not a minor._ ” He was trying so hard to stay calm.

 

“Riiiiight. Look, I know you’re probably just going to go outside and drink anyway, and I really want you to do that safely but Hancock’s trying to cut down on bad behaviour nowadays. Kids can’t get booze in Goodneighbour anymore.”

 

“ _I don’t want alcohol”_ Maxson snapped

 

“Same goes for chems” The bouncer patted his shoulder sympathetically, was everyone in the wasteland an idiot?! Maxson took a deep breath.

 

“ _Sir, please._ I’m just looking for Alex” Maxson’s voice had taken on a pleading tone, today had honestly broken him. In the last month he’d had to carefully diffuse a potential war with the Minutemen, help in an actual war against the institute, lay down the foundations for a peace treaty so that everyone would stop fighting and actually help the people, and say goodbye to a damned good friend… _Paladin_ he quickly corrected himself. Was a little respect too much to ask?

 

The bouncer looked Maxson up and down, noting his worn amour, tired eyes and the large, dark bruise covering half his scarred face. Coming to completely the wrong conclusion, the bouncer took pity on the ‘poor defenceless kid’.

 

“Don’t get upset sonny.” Maxson was not upset but petulant arguing wouldn’t help his case.

“You can call me Ham, why don’t you come with me and we can talk to Mayor Hancock? He might know who this Alex is. He’s in the bar now, I can escort you there.”

 

Maxson was too tired to worry about Hancock recognising him. The ghoul wouldn’t cause trouble with the Brotherhood and Maxson just wanted to be on his way.

 

“That would be great, thank you.” Maxson followed Ham into the seedy subway station. The Mayor was sat at the bar talking to a Mr. Handy.

 

“Boss, there’s a kid here looking for a guy named Alex. Think you can help him out?”

Hancock took one look at the “kid” before bursting out laughing. Maxson rubbed his temples while Ham stood there dumbfounded.

 

“You look like shit” Hancock managed to gasp out between giggles. “Did you finally decide to ditch the brotherhood and live it up here then?” He motioned to Maxson’s armour

 

“Hancock be nice. The kids clearly taken a risk coming here, least we can do is help him.” Once again coming to the wrong conclusion, Ham had apparently decided that Maxson was a young squire desperately trying to escape a slightly fascist military organisation and not the incredibly pissed off elder of said organisation. This made Hancock laugh harder.

 

“You know, a better person would give some long speech about loving thy neighbour, and after everything you’ve done you really don’t deserve that love, but let’s be real here. The only punishment worse than not helping you, would be Alex helping you.” Oh good, Hancock had clearly met Alex then.

 

“Just tell me where he is and hopefully we’ll never have to see each other again.” Maxson said stiffly

 

“Go south-west to Egret Tours Marina. He said something about getting into a fist fight with a radstag there.”

 

“A fistfight with a what now?”

 

“Radstag. Ooh, if I give you a camera would be able to get pictures of that for me? I could use some nice wall décor for my office, I’ll even throw in free drinks for life.” Hancock punctuated the last line with a wiggle of his eyebrows, much to Ham’s annoyance as he was still under the impression that this lost child should be protected.

 

“Are you really going to let him go out there alone?” Ham asked Hancock

 

“Eh, Alex only left with the other two about half an hour ago, he can probably catch up if he walks fast. Besides, the _kid’s_ tough” Hancock punctuated kids with a smile, picking up on how much Maxson hated being talked down to. “Apparently he got that pretty little scar taking down a deathclaw with a nothing but a knife!” Ham looked surprised at that

 

“You’re worse than the squires.” Maxson rolled his eyes, was this story really going around again?! “The deathclaw had already been shot a few times and I went for the stomach. Easy kill if you don’t get hit.”

 

Ham had relaxed a little more at this but still insisted on walking Maxson through Goodneighbour and making sure he had enough ammo and food for the journey. Every one of Maxson’s attempts to clear up the confusion and say that he was a capable adult had been instantly thwarted by Hancock, who had taken to calling him “Arty” and was this close to getting a personalised airstrike, courtesy of the Brotherhood elder whose cheeks he was pinching.

 

Upon getting through the gate from Goodneighbour to the wasteland, Maxson had practically sprinted down the road until the town was out of sight. Thanks to his breakneck speed he managed to catch up to Alex and co in fairly good time. The fact that Alex was apparently stopping to take out every raider group on the way helped. Charon and Gary were stood outside of an old hardware building, with Alex presumably inside. The duo had pointed their weapons at him as soon as they noticed his approach. He held his hands up and kept his gun on his back to show that he wasn’t hostile (to these two, he wasn’t sure about Alex yet). Gary was the first to put his weapon down, Charon stayed as he was but gave Gary a questioning glance.

 

“Maxson” Gary said with a motion to his chin that probably meant beard

 

“How the hell did you recognise him?! Did they make you with super vision in that vault?!” Charon lowered his gun but still looked confused at Maxsons drastic change in appearance. Gary instead looked confused as he tried to process what Charon had just said before deciding that Charon seldom said anything he really wanted to understand. Charon turned to face Maxson.

 

“So, what’s with the new look? Bit of a change.” That was an understatement.

 

“Funnily enough that’s what I wanted to speak to you about. Is Knight Cole with you?” Speak of the devil, Alex chose that moment to jump out of the window of the building. Were there no stairs? Or had he just decided this was faster?

 

“Arthur!! What’s up my good bitch?” Alex was unsuccessfully hiding his chuckling as he took in Maxson’s unimpressed, beardless face.

 

“ _Knight Cole_. That is no way to talk to a superior officer.” Maxson wanted to try and establish some boundaries before disciplining Alex.

 

“Sorry. What’s up _my supreme bitch_.” Not better.

 

“Care to explain this?” Maxson made a motion to his face.

 

“Umm, you have a good skincare routine?” Alex replied, missing the point spectacularly.

 

“ _No. I mean care to explain where my beard went?!”_

 

“I don’t know how to break it to you but usually when someone shaves, it gets rid of their beard.” Alex was being deliberately obtuse now.

 

“ _When I woke up this morning, half of my beard was gone, I was soaked through and there was contact adhesive in my shoes. **I know you’re behind this** ”_ Maxson hissed, grabbing Alex by the collar.

 

“And just how are you going to prove that?” Alex’s grin had turned a little more sinister and there was a glint in his eye.

Maxson was seething. His hands were clenched into fists, he wasn’t thinking clearly, and his vision was going black around the edges.

 

Wait.

 

His vision was going black around the edges?

 

There was something in the air and it wasn’t tension. He could taste copper. Alex had apparently noticed it too; his eyes had gone wide and he was fumbling for something in his pack.

 

“ ** _SHIT. MASKS ON_** ” Alex commanded with enough authority that the elder followed his orders without question. Gas attacks were common enough tactics with smart raiders but this one was different. Whatever it was, was already in everyone’s systems and was taking effect. Maxson’s suddenly heavy limbs didn’t want to work, it was as if he was moving through syrup. His tongue felt larger and his words were slurred as he tried to radio for support. His vision greyed out completely as breathing became harder. Head spinning, Maxson attempted walk out of danger. Someone was clinging onto him for support, but he genuinely couldn’t tell who. After a few steps his legs gave out on him completely and the blackness swallowed him whole.


End file.
